Broadcasting

Defund Public Media?

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Article in the New York Times by Benjamin Mullin and Kate Conger, 12/27/24

Headline:  “NPR and PBS Stations Brace for Funding Battle Under Trump”

Subhead:  “Republicans in Congress have tried to defund public media for decades. With the help of Elon Musk, could they finally make good on their threat?”

“Elon Musk is gunning for public media.

“In his new role advising President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk has floated sweeping cuts to the federal government, including the elimination of entire departments and the firing of agency leaders. One of the most concrete proposals on his list is eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding that the government funnels to PBS and NPR stations, home to cultural touchstones like Elmo, Big Bird and “Fresh Air.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/business/media/npr-pbs-funding-trump-musk.html

Musk Talks Media Puppets

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From TX Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Article in Mediaite by Zachary Leeman, 12/20/24

Headline:  “Elon Musk Blasts ‘Legacy Media Puppets’ Trying To Tear Him and Trump Apart with ‘President Elon’ Talking Points”

Elon Musk accused “legacy media puppets” of trying to drive a “wedge” between him and President-elect Donald Trump as critics question the pair’s power dynamic amid budget chaos on Capitol Hill.

A number of Democrats have taken to questioning whether Musk is truly in charge after led the charge to oppose an initial spending bill supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that would have avoided a government shutdown. A second bill, supported by Musk and Trump, later failed to pass through the House, leaving lawmakers scrambling at the 11th hour.

Musk’s Friday message was in response to an X user highlighting a post from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in which she claimed Musk was more in charge of Republicans than Trump, calling him the “shadow president.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-blasts-legacy-media-puppets-trying-to-tear-him-and-trump-apart-with-president-elon-talking-points/

Broadcasters – Beware!

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Article in Ars Technica y Jon Brokdin, 12/17/24

Headline:

Subhead:  “Brendan Carr backs Trump’s war against media, but revoking licenses won’t be easy.”

“President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants the FCC to crack down on news broadcasters that he perceives as being unfair to Trump or Republicans in general.

“Carr’s stated goals would appear to mark a major shift in the FCC’s approach to broadcasters. Carr’s predecessors, including outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai, who served in the first Trump administration, both rejected Trump’s calls to punish news networks for alleged bias.

“Carr has instead embraced Trump’s view that broadcasters should be punished for supposed anti-conservative bias. Carr has threatened to revoke licenses by wielding the FCC’s authority to ensure that broadcast stations using public airwaves operate in the public interest, despite previous chairs saying the First Amendment prevents the FCC from revoking licenses based on content.”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/trumps-fcc-chair-can-hassle-the-living-daylights-out-of-news-broadcasters/

Will Our Free Press Burn?

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Article in The Nation by Chris Lehmann. 12/17/24

Headline:  “Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started “

Subhead:  “The president-elect’s recent settlement with ABC News is an early volley in an all-out MAGA war against media independence.”

“. . .MSNBC’s erstwhile resistance mascots Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski started the ball rolling with a deferential post-election junket to Mar-a-Lago. Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong chimed in by throttling stories critical of MAGA prerogatives—and then announced an absurd AI feature that allowed readers to clock and correct alleged bias in the paper’s coverage, thereby downgrading the chronicle of current events into a choose-your-own adventure computer app for irate ideologues.”

“. . . Now, ABC News, a subsidiary of the Disney Corporation, has accelerated the quisling march of mainstream journalism into inert MAGA observance with a $15 million settlement of a defamation suit that Trump brought against the network”

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-abc-settlement/

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Article in Common Dreams by Robert Reich, 12/17/24

Headline: “ABC News Shows What It Looks Like When Corporate Media Bows to Trump”

Subhead: “We are beginning to see this all over the U.S. political-economic system — giant corporations and hugely wealthy people going out of their way to appease King Trump even in advance of his coronation.”

“ABC shouldn’t have agreed to settle the defamation case Trump brought against it — handing him $15 million for his presidential “library” (whatever monument that turns out to be) and another million for his legal fees, along with an apology.

It shouldn’t have, first, because the standard for defamation of a public figure requires that a plaintiff prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice” — that is, knew their statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

“But when on March 10, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll, there’s zero evidence that Stephanopoulos knew it to be false or was acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-attack-on-free-press

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Staff, 12/17/24

Headline:  “Questions ABC News Should Answer Following the $16 Million Trump Settlement”

Subhead:  “The decision to cave and apologize has unnerved American journalists. The network owes them an explanation.”

As someone who practiced press law for more than twenty years, and served as a senior executive of news organizations for just as long, I was shocked by the decision of ABC News last week to pay $16 million to settle Donald Trump’s libel case over George Stephanopoulos’s This Week broadcast in March. The shock came, and still lingers, because I—and every experienced press lawyer not involved in the case with whom I have discussed it—considered the case one in which ABC was likely to eventually prevail.

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/questions-abc-news-should-answer-16-million-trump- settlement.php

 

Selective Coverage – Vital Issues

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Article in Media Matters by Harrison Ray, 12/10/24

Headline:  “Cable news is barely covering Trump and GOP plans to slash Medicaid’

Subhead:  “CNN and Fox News almost completely ignored the Republicans’ plans”

“Cable news networks largely ignored changes the incoming Trump administration and congressional Republicans are reportedly considering to limit access to Medicaid.

The proposals have raised alarms among health care advocates, who warn of potentially devastating impacts to vulnerable populations including children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Since November 14, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC have given the Republicans’ potential plans only 40 minutes of coverage. MSNBC led networks with over 33 minutes coverage. However, both CNN and Fox News largely failed to cover the story

https://www.mediamatters.org/health-care/cable-news-is-barely-covering-Trump-and-GOP-plans-to-slash-medicaid

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Article in Media Matters by Gideon Taffe, 12/11/24

Headline:  “Fox News is downplaying Donald Trump’s extreme agenda as moderate”

“As Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term in office, Fox News is downplaying his agenda that threatens to deport millions of people, implement destructive economic policy, roll back reproductive rights, enact “retribution” against his rivals, promote anti-vaccine figures to be in charge of public health, and radically gut federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-downplaying-donald-trumps-extreme-agenda-moderate

 

 

Government Control and Public Media

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sacha Biazzo, 12/11/24

Headline:  “Lucia Annunziata on the Transformation of Italy’s Public Broadcaster Under Giorgia Meloni”

Subhead:  “An anchor turned politician on her exit from RAI.”

“Historically, RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, has always been subject to government control. During the political era dominated by Silvio Berlusconi, the late media mogul turned three-time prime minister, for example, the infamous “Bulgarian Diktat” caused an uproar: following a declaration by Berlusconi, management effectively removed the journalist Enzo Biagi, anchor Michele Santoro, and satirist Daniele Luttazzi . . . from public TV altogether.

“Today, under the right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni, efforts to align RAI with the government’s agenda have been seen as even more pervasive—the broadcaster has undergone a series of radical transformations, often referred to using the shorthand TeleMeloni.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/qa_lucia_annunziata_telemeloni_italy_rai.php

New Voice for VOA

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Article in Common Dreams by Jake Johonson, 12/12/24

Headline:  ” ‘Stuff of Parody’: Trump Taps Election-Denying Ally Kari Lake to Run Voice of America”

Subhead:  ” ‘Authoritarians love to control and instrumentalize media organizations, especially state-funded ones,’ journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote in response to the news.”

“President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Kari Lake, a far-right election denier and failed U.S. Senate candidate, to lead the federally funded international broadcast network Voice of America, a move that critics said underscores Trump’s effort to transform government entities into vehicles to advance his own interests.

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that as director of VOA, Lake would “ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/kari-lake-voice-of-america

Media Workers Arrested

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Article by Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff, 12/5/25

Headline:  “Taliban detains 7 Arezo TV journalists, seals network’s offices in Kabul”

“Dozens of Taliban agents from the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) raided the offices of private broadcaster Arezo TV on December 4 in the capital, Kabul, questioned staff members for four hours, and detained seven journalists and media workers. Woman journalists were expelled from the premises, and the network’s offices were sealed, according to a journalist familiar with the situation in Kabul, who spoke to CPJ anonymously, citing fear of reprisal.”

https://cpj.org/2024/12/taliban-detains-7-arezo-tv-journalists-seals-networks-offices-in-kabul/

Crusader Against Media

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Podcast on NPR by Plott Calabro, 12/4/24

Headline:  “Kash Patel’s Crusade Against the Media”

“. . . Atlantic staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro, profiled Kash Patel in August, charting his rise to power, starting at the very beginning of his legal career. She explains how he came to loathe the media, and love Trump. Further reading: “The Man Who Will Do Anything For Trump,” by Elaina Plott Calabro “What the FBI Has Done, and Kash Patel Could Do,” by Jon Allsop On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today . Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Newsrooms Emptying Out

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Article in Mother Jones by Abby Vesoulis, 12/4/24

Headline:  “Watching the Media Reckoning Unfold in a Now-Shuttered Broadcast Newsroom”

“In about two weeks, nearly everyone in this Atlanta conference room will be out of a job. But tonight, on November 5, the Scripps News team has an election to cover.

“Nothing goes on the air unless it gets vetted through the control room, okay?” says Brian Donlon, a New Yorker who tempers his gruff side with wisecracks. ”

“. . . Like other newsrooms across the country, Scripps News was bracing for the worst—potential violence, claims of rigged voting, a deluge of disinformation. But it was also wrestling with its own reckoning: the unraveling of its national broadcast news operation and the imminent unemployment of roughly 200 colleagues”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/12/scripps-news-election-broadcast-media-layoffs/